Dear Philippines | Letters for the Philippines

May 12, 2016

Design Week Philippines has their event held at the walled-city, Intramuros. Dear Philippines | Letters to the Philippines is an event part of the Design Week 2016 held at Teatrillos in Casa Manila, Intramuros.

Dear Philippines

Letters for the Philippines

It was on a sunny Sunday (April 17, 2016) where I volunteered for Type Kita’s exhibit which was Dear Philippines | Letters for the Philippines. If I had no class on Saturday, I would’ve volunteered for the two days (but that would be selfish of me, I know). And since I did not know how to get there via PUJ/PUV, I had to use Grab/Uber. There was no traffic so the fare was cheap although there were some traffic inside Intramuros due to the closed roads.

Letters to Philippines | Dear Philippines

The whole part of Intramuros where we were was filled artworks from various artists (some of them, I know, well, because of Type Kita). It was such a heart-melting experience seeing and bonding with the people you admire. Especially, having fun moments with then and the one and only Mister Kams.

Mister Kams is a Spanish graphic designer/letterer specializing in calligraphy and lettering. He was in Manila for about a month and have conducted workshops which was well-attended. If you want to see his works/site, just click [x].

With fellow volunteers, artists, calligraphers and Mister Kams

We even saw him personally write something for the exhibit and we were amazed on how he did it. He was really fun to be with.

Twinning with Teacher Geli and Mister Kams

There were postcards for sale, either plain or printed. They were sold at Php 10 and Php 20 respectively. With the plain one, you could design it on your own and have the option to mail it to yourself or to somebody else. People were choosing to the plain ones so they could design it themselves and let the creativity flow. I, on the other hand, was scribbling notes for the Philippines.

Twinning with Teacher Geli

Aside from the exhibit, there were workshops held at various places inside Intramuros. There was urban sketching by Abbey Sy, watercolor workshop by Tippy Go of Google Goeys and another one in Teatrillos which covered calligraphy (just not sure if what kind though).

But before their workshop, we were able to have a photo with them (missing Tippy Go of Googly Goeys) ☹️

Aside from the workshops, there was also a live mural painting by Mister Kams and Mark Dean Lim. Both are amazing pieces and witnessing them doing it was really surreal. I only wish I could do what they did (this can happen sometime in the future).

I will do my best to compile all the snaps, snippets, videos that I captured during the event and place it here. I hope I can do it before this posts gets mold. 😂

And of course, behind the artists, there will always be those people who are there to capture the moments and to admire their finished products.

In truth, being a volunteer for the event was one of the best things that happened since I practiced calligraphy. Getting to interact with the artists you admire just makes me admire them more. They have gazillion followers on their social accounts and they still interact with us. They even gave us tips and the history on why did they push calligraphy, lettering, doodling or art itself.

Mister Kams with his work

It also motivates those aspiring calligraphers (e.g. ME) to become better at the craft and also to share the knowledge that I gained thru the practice. I highly appreciate online communities found in social networks that are open to sharing your works, asking for tips and even conversing with them. At least, even if the people around you (physically) do not understand how or what calligraphy is, the people in the community is there to support and appreciate what you do.

People may criticize, judge or hate calligraphy because for them it’s just a fancy handwriting but remember that doing it makes you happy so just shrug them off. The people who hate are just the people who’re the Jon Snow in calligraphy. Why? Because they know nothing.

But going back to the letters, this is my favorite:

From Richelle Macapagal, a lawyer and calligrapher

She just inspired me to push that even if I’m pursuing LLB, I could still become a calligrapher (even though not professionally). She told me (through her work, of course) that even if your career is different from what you really love doing (e.g. hobbies, passion) you can balance both and it could work alongside.

I love your message to our dear Philippines; I just wish the people above (e.g. in the government) will do as what they have been telling us since their campaign started. My normal handwriting sucks too but by just practicing it got better (I think)

I am taking a cue from Kerr… if I were to write a little something, it would be like, “Dear Philippines, when are you going to take your rightful place in the world?” Syempre calligraphy will have to be done by someone else… if it was just me, I’d use fonts I find online 🙂

I don’t understand why people would hate on you for doing calligraphy! It is beautiful. Sometimes people judge me for having hobbies they think are frivolous, but I don’t think they get to be the ones to judge what is frivolous. I love how cool the calligraphy looks with neon colors. I’ve never seen that before!

“Dear Philippines, I still believe in you!” – this is one of the things I wanted to say to my beloved country. The event look so fun and productive. And very inspiring, too. If I were in your position, I would also definitely join this awsesome event! Will wait for your video 🙂

No, Calligraphy is art. Actually I’ve attended some workshops before. I don’t know doing calligraphy at all but it was a fun and wonderful experience when you learned how to make it. I love Calligraphy. This is a great post, Calligraphy to make letters to Philippines xo

This is nice, if you have time to check my homepage one of my popular articles entitled Dear Philippines: What’s wrong with you? I think i can relate to this event. Except for being artistic I don’t have that hahahaha. If only I knew this I could bring my friend who is good in calligraphy. This is awesome and photos are cool 🙂

I’d like to try calligraphy in the future. They look so nice. I miss painting using watercolors. That was one of my favorite mediums in the past. These days, I no longer get to paint because I have small kids to care for. 🙁 I hope to go back to this passion when my kids are bigger.